Current developments in youth conferencing, and in restorative justice in Northern Ireland

• Author: David Smyth Q.C.
• Position: County Court Judge for the Division of Antrim, Northern Ireland, Chair of the Board of Advisors of the Queen's University Institute of Criminology, and President of the Northern Ireland Community Addiction Service
• Pages: 41-53

CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS IN YOUTH

CONFERENCING, AND IN RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

IN NORTHERN IRELAND

HIS HON. JUDGE DAVID SMYTH Q.C.*

INTRODUCTION

Ihope to give you a brief idea of what I want to try to achieve

in the next 30 minutes or so and I also trust that time will be left for

questions. First, questions are much more likely to throw up aspects

of this which interest you and which will result in more interesting

answers. Second, although we live on the same island, I have little

idea of either what you know about restorative justice (which may

well be a lot morethan I do) or about what we aretrying to achieve

in NorthernIreland. I also hope those of you who know a lot about

the concept of restorative justice, its history and its different

applications, will forgive me if you find what I have to say about its

origins is either too basic or too trite.

Ihope to outline:

• The basic concept.

• Its historyin Northern Ireland.

• The current Youth Conferencing Scheme (YCS) in Northern

Ireland; and

• Some criticisms I have of it.

I. THE BASIC CONCEPT

As I said, I am surethis will be a bit simplistic for those of you

familiar with the concept. Before I attempt this could I tell you that I

am, by no means, an evangelist. Both by my experience and by my

nature I react against theories that are sold by their advocates as

being panaceas for all our ills and in respect of which claims are

made that they will be so much better than what went before.

2005] Current Developments in Youth Conferencing,

and in Restorative Justice in Northern Ireland

41

*County Court Judge for the Division of Antrim, Northern Ireland, Chair of the Board of

Advisors of the Queen’s University Institute of Criminology, and President of the Northern

Ireland Community Addiction Service. Text of an address delivered at the IASD Eighth Annual

Conference, Kilkenny, 4th – 6th November 2005.